Merrill Lynch Loses Crown
As IPO Underwriting King

NEW YORK -- Merrill Lynch & Co., once the undisputed king of the new-stock underwriting market, has lost some of its empire.

Over a five-year period, Merrill's share of the market for bringing forth initial public stock offerings, including real-estate investment trusts and closed-end funds, fell to 12.9% last year from 19.2% in 1993, according to Securities Data Co., a Newark, N.J., concern that tracks corporate-finance...